Likable and eye-catching, "The Golden Compass" presents an impressively realized fantasy world. Not only can polar bears talk, but they also sound like Ian McKellen, and people wear their souls on the outside of their bodies, in the form of animals - or "daemons" - that follow them everywhere. There's no doubting any technical aspect of the film, and the virtues on display aren't limited to the technical. The cast is made up of major actors, perfectly suited to their roles, and one flat-out, no-doubt-about-it find in the form of Dakota Blue Richards, who plays Lyra, the young heroine.

Yet despite all this, an aura of disappointment takes hold midway into "Golden Compass" and becomes undeniable by the finish. Some will see the movie as a near miss and others as a close hit, but few will be able to convince themselves that "The Golden Compass" is an achievement on the order of the "Lord of the Rings" films or "The Chronicles of Narnia." Those movies realized the serious undertone of their literary sources. This one retreats from its source.

"The Golden Compass" is based on the first book of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which posits a sort of alternative version of history in which the Protestant Reformation never happened. In Pullman's tale, the church, known as the Magisterium, is clearly a version of the Roman Catholic Church, which, instead of being purged of corruption and stripped of worldly power, rules nations, disciplines truth seekers and keeps scientific knowledge under strict control.

The film adaptation retains the Magisterium, and its officers do look something like Catholic cardinals, but the book's ideas about the dangers of organized religion have been either dumbed down or obscured. The brain has been removed from the story - or worse. In "The Golden Compass," there's a ghastly process called intercision, in which children are separated from their daemons. This film is like Pullman's tale separated from its daemon. It's a story without a soul.

When Peter Jackson directed "Lord of the Rings," there was the sense of a director who saw that world whole, who had a complete vision in his mind of how Middle Earth looked and felt and what it meant. But in "The Golden Compass," director Chris Weitz ("About a Boy") is just feeling his way, piecing together the work of a brilliant technical staff with his own sense of how characters should interact. His adaptation of Pullman's novel feels like talented guesswork, an experiment in how much could be cut away without killing the patient. Lacking an overarching understanding, Weitz could only assemble the elements and hope for an infusion of magic, but the magic isn't there.

But Dakota Blue Richards is there, and that's something. A 13-year-old girl with no previous screen experience, Richards has slightly messed-up English teeth, wide-set eyes and the alert, knowing face of a smart 32-year-old woman. Lyra is a student in an Oxford boarding school, and as played by Richards it's no stretch to believe that this girl is special enough for the fate that destiny has set aside for her - to be at the center of the battle between knowledge and ignorance, free will and oppression.

Daniel Craig plays Lyra's uncle, Lord Asriel, a famous explorer, scientist and politician, who is making discoveries that will shake the authority of the Magisterium. As Asriel, Craig is commanding and swaggering, but his role is given short shrift. Nicole Kidman fares better as Mrs. Coulter, a rich, refined woman who lives in airy splendor and takes on Lyra as a protegee. As embodied by Kidman, Mrs. Coulter is tall and composed and as cold and scary as a movie star.

The film's title comes from an object entrusted to Lyra, known as an alethiometer, something almost as important as Frodo's ring, a truth-telling device that only she can read. Though the story is complicated, Lyra's goals are simple throughout - to reunite with her uncle, to protect the compass and to help find some classmates of hers who have gone missing. Along the way, she meets a band of scruffy renegades, known as Gyptians, and has run-ins with government thugs, known as Gobblers. She also teams up with Iorek (McKellen), a tough-as-nails polar bear who is the movie's best CGI achievement.

Yet the longer the film goes on, the less it builds. Sam Elliott shows up as a wily Texan who wants to help Lyra, and the characterization is tired. An obligatory battle scene takes place, with Alexandre Desplat's John Williams-like music pumped over the soundtrack, but the music sounds surer than the action. The lack of energy is palpable, probably stemming from a lack of directorial purpose and conviction. When the ending comes, it's a surprise. I saw the movie before reading the book - without knowing that the script lopped off the last 100 pages of the novel - and it still seemed truncated to me.

In the end, there's only one way not to be disappointed by "The Golden Compass" and that's to approach it as a children's version of an adults' book.